Evidence Based Education: un quadro storico

Over the last decade, in the Anglo-Saxon pedagogical literature, we witnessed a significant diffusion of an “evidence-based” culture. According to it, educational decisions should be taken on the basis of results derived from empirical research, related to the efficacy of different pedagogical options. It is an approach (called “evidence based practice") that originated in the medical field and that subsequently has been applied in several social sciences. In this paper, the author introduces this perspective, discussing its origins and the different definitions and meanings related to it.